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Many people still believe in the story that some god went into a garden andcreated a man called Adam, and then a woman called Eve. The woman had towait her turn, of course. And children love the part about the apple andsnake. It is an easy story; it is likeable. Black and white, it issimple.

These naive people are uncomfortable with what is complex. Instead oflooking at the facts before them, they conjure up a story that is easy tounderstand. They are people of faith, after all, and they castigate thepeople of fact. They shun science and what biology tells us is true. Thesepeople would rather ignore and turn away from fascinating discoveries infront of them, such as the more complicated story of who we are as mammals,what it means to be members of the species called homo sapiens. They makefun. They make fun of. And with ineffable offense, these people flinchwhen asked a fundamental human question such as: "To whom does ahermaphrodite wed?"

As I type this, I can see you, too, flinch. I can see all the vestiges ofyour prejudice, coiled and striking. It is discomforting to think of thosethings we have been taught are uncomfortable. But that question does notdither, and it is not hyperbole if it involves a citizen of our esteemedRepublic you are charged with protecting.

The question, in its anecdote and universality, is as pertinent now as itwas at the dawn of the Miocene, when the earliest hominids looked out acrossthe Middle Awash Valley in Ethiopia. That question and all knowledge inthe scientific literatures dealing with gender, chromosomes, hormones,sexual orientation, and identity - are all too difficult and scary for mostpeople to comprehend. They would rather think of a hermaphrodite as circusfreak show. You know the ones, the bearded ladies. The naive thinkerscan't see behind the circus tent that a truly amazing human conditionexists. If you have dared to read this far, look them in the eye, thehermaphrodite who is as human as you. You are members of the same species,after all, with the same desire to love and be loved. They have the samedesire to reach up, in the last rhythms of breath, and touch the tendercheek of their dearly beloved. In your power, you have passed judgment onthem: condemnation on members of your species you donšt even understand. Intheir wisdom, they stare back at you with epochal sadness.

Likewise, the simple-minded people would rather think of the two lesbianswho have lived together for 49 years and want to be married in the finaldays before they expire - as just a minority status, aberrational, sinners.Worse yet, the simple-minded people don't want to think of them at all:hermaphrodites don't exist, homosexuality is unnatural. After livingtortured lives, your fellow humans have found harmony and respite in thegentle embrace of their companion. You have condemned their embrace whiledenying its very existence.

Today, you ignored the fascinating complexities of biology, you found yourrefuge in the binary story of Adam and Eve. You ignored the scientificquestions of who we are as a species - a multinomial spectrum of people madeup of individual lives - and you chose the un-evolved, easy, untrue story ofwho we are. You were duped, and your opinion perpetuates the lie.

The tears stream down upon this page, as many as the questions I implore:How does history treat Oscar Wilde's accusers? How does history see theimprisonment of Leonardo da Vinci? Historically, how was Paragraph 175 ofthe German Criminal Code used? Where were the judges, in their long blackrobes? Where were you?

So many questions you turn away from, with discomfort and prejudice, becauseafter all, you have a stack of mail to open on your desk. A busy schedulefor the day. In your mind, it's all settled: Adam and Eve. Case is closed.With the stroke of your pen, you turned your back on our human species andyour intellectual investigation of who we really are.

However, Justice Madsen, history is never kind to the injudicious. Foreveryou will be haunted by the pain you have inflicted upon your fellow humans,and this question,

"To whom does a hermaphrodite wed?"

M.

Thought to ponderCheersJohnny

Logged

"You shut your mouthhow can you sayI go about things the wrong wayI am human and I need to be lovedjust like everybody else does"The Smiths